NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - On the way home after a tough day at his music publishing business, Donald Seitz drove by a church marquee proclaiming, "He who kneels before God, can stand before anyone."
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(Photo: Donal Seitz)This photo of a sign in front of the Nashville West End Church of Christ is part of a collection by Donald Seitz of Nashville.
The spiritual message was exactly what he needed to lift his cloudy outlook.
Seitz says he was so moved by the experience, he spent the next three years driving 20,000 miles across 40 states to photograph 100 church signs for a new book, which features other catchy lines like "Life is fragile. Handle with prayer" and "Don't Give Up. Moses Was Once A Basket Case."
Some drivers might roll their eyes or chuckle at the "drive-by sermons" on church signs, but the pun-heavy religious messages have become key to attracting the attention of worshippers and potential worshippers.
The signs are meant to enlighten, entertain and evangelize - in usually 10 words or less - and often give drivers a brief glimpse of what the church community believes and what to expect from the pulpit.
"Many of the people who read signs will not end up in their (churches) pews, but they may be able to affect their lives in a positive way," Seitz said. "It's like a sermon on the road."
Most churches began in the 1990s to give up wooden signs with sermon schedules in favor of marquees with moveable letters.
Signs with humorous one-liners or simple spiritual messages communicated more information to the public about the church and perhaps intrigued newcomers to check out Sunday services, said Colorado pastor Ron Glusenkamp, who wrote the book "Signs for These Times."
"It was a way to encourage people to utilize their church signs, to recognize it's a valuable way to connect with people ... to help people kind of reflect on their relationship with God," Glusenkamp said.
Seitz's self-published book of photos entitled "The Great American Book of Church Signs" highlights 100 signs covering themes like faith, forgiveness, love, prayer and perseverance.
Featured in the book are gems like "Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death," from Church of Christ at Brookhill in Killen, Ala., "Love God with all your heart, then do whatever you want," from Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, and "Tithe if you love Jesus. Anyone can honk," from Southern Heights Baptist Church in Russellville, Ky.
Not everyone is crazy about the marquees and believe they often belittle or misrepresent Christian beliefs.
Joel Bezaire, for one, started the blog crummychurchsigns.com, which offers "critical analysis of critically bad church signs," according to the Web site. He says he's gotten submissions from 40 states, and over 400 signs have been cataloged on the site since he began it two years ago.
He says a lot of the signs are meant to be funny but aren't - and end up making Christianity look silly and irrelevant.
"We're sort of perpetuating the stereotype out there among non-Christians that we're out of touch, and we don't have anything to say to them," Bezaire said.
"There are some things you could put out there that could be meaningful. Some (signs) just elicit groans and eye rolls and more dismay than anything else. I would say they don't ... edify, enrich as often as a lot people think they do." Continue >>
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